Saimoe
Saimoe (最萌, lit., "most moe", see definition below) is an online fantasy voting contest in which participants from all over the world vote for the most "moe" among a roster of characters from different anime series. It initially spawned as a simple popularity poll, and eventually developed into a worldwide contest. What is Moe? The exact definition of moe has evolved over time, from being a term used to simply describe the cuteness of a certain fictional character to a term which envelops a certain degree of a person's affection to that fictional character, often inspired by his or her physical characteristics. What is Saimoe? History 'Anime Saimoe Tournament' In 2002, people in 2ch grew curious at what might be the result of unbiased poll of characters from all the anime series, as none of the polls up to that time could be called as such, thus started the Saimoe. It was supposed to be fair poll, open to anyone interested. The tenure of the poll changed in 2005 as people in Lyrical Nanoha Thread and Rozen Maiden Thread started rallying people within their thread to do whatever it takes for their characters to win. The 'war' between two threads led to increase in voting due to the thread members asking for votes in many different websites, which eventually made the international community aware of the event. It also made the Saimoe website offer English help to the non-Japanese voters. 'Best Moe Tournament' International fame the Saimoe started to attract made Anizone.net be interested in hosting their own moe tournament for the Koreans in 2006, which lead to creation of Best Moe Tournament. In 2007, Best Moe Tournament experimented with Male division, and while this was supposed to be more of practice run for the Female division, the Male division became surprise success due to large number of female anime fans' participation. In hope to attract even more diverse group of voters, Best Moe Tournament Female Division in 2007 began offering full English version of the Tournament website, followed by versions in Japanese and Chinese. When it became known that group of Vietnamese voters may have been responsible for success of certain characters in Best Moe, its popularity increased even further. Even more Globalization for some Many unpredicted things happened in 2007 Best Moe Tournament's Female Division match. In order to further find out what else may happen, the Best Moe Staff decided to try a condense format of moe tournament, which lead to formation of Super Best Moe 2006-07, where only those who demonstrated success in previous Best Moe Tournaments would be allowed to enter. This experiment was surprising success with international crowd, most of them hoping for some sort of consolation for their character's defeat in Anime Saimoe Tournament. This success became the catalyst for creation of International Saimoe League. Today, while Anime Saimoe Tournament restricts international access for some reasons, Best Moe Tournament and International Saimoe League strives to make the event one where anime fans all over the world can express their opinions about various characters, and also one where people may get acquainted with new characters. See Also * Anime Saimoe Tournament * Best Moe Tournament * International Saimoe League Category:Information Pages